Textual pluriformity and allusion in the book of Revelation : the text of Zechariah 4 in the Apocalypse

Abstract

The book of Revelation relentlessly alludes to Jewish scripture. Linguistic and thematic material from these works is enmeshed throughout the entirety of the Apocalypse. The gravid biblicism of this work and its manifest reuse of scrip-tural traditions raises a foundational question that is often overlooked in current scholarly discourse: to which form(s) of scriptural works did John allude?¹ This article examines this fundamental question using John’s references to Zech 4 as samples. The identification of the Vorlage(n) of John’s allusions is an open ques-tion which remains debated in current scholarship. Where this question is dis-cussed, its importance is often underplayed² and, on occasion, flawed textual assumptions are operative.³ An in-depth analysis of the Vorlagen of allusions in Revelation based on textual criteria remains a desideratum as no consensus on this issue has arisen.⁴ The goal of this discussion is to examine the textual evidence internal to the book of Revelation in order to determine the form of Zech 4 to which the author alluded. The textual evidence from the Judean Desert suggests that multiple textual exemplars of certain books of the Hebrew Bible and its early Greek versions (OG/ LXX) circulated concurrently in Jewish and early Christian communities in the first century CE. Despite the profundity of this evidence, the question of textual form is often dismissed as unnecessary by many sectors of current scholarship.⁵ However, this concern is essential to any exploration of John’s interpretation of scripture or the rhetoric of allusion in the book of Revelation. This article addresses this lacuna in current scholarship, bringing the question of Vorlage to the fore and indicating its critical importance. Quantitative constraints preclude a full study of references to Zechariah in Revelation – two test cases are examined here. There exists no serious scholarly challenge to the assertion that the primary source material for John’s “seven spirits” (1,4; 3,1; 4,5; 5,6) and the “two witnesses” (11,1–13) is Zech 4.⁶ This study aims to identify the particular form of Zechariah that underlies these allusions and suggests areas of enquiry for which this data is critical.